Duke of Gloucester visits the Great West Road

''100 years ago King George V “opened” the Great West Road, and last month his grandson, the Duke of Gloucester, joined Ruth Cadbury MP, Cllr Amy Croft and Hounslow Leader Cllr Shantanu Rajawat to celebrate the centenary of a great piece of transport engineering.

The Great West Road was built with six traffic lanes, and lined on both sides with a footpath and cycle path separated by lines of cherry trees. Then the section from Syon Lane to Chiswick was developed with iconic Art Deco factories for Smiths Crisps, and Maclean’s toothpaste and named the “Golden Mile” because JB Preistley dubbed it as similar to rolling into a vista of California.

The Royal visit was hosted by JCDecaux at their striking art deco offices, once the home Curry’s electricals (and bikes) and rejuvenated by architect Norman Foster’s imaginative project in 2000. Before he acceded to the Dukedom, the Duke of Gloucester was an architect, so was really interested in the history as well as the planned future developments of the Golden Mile.''